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California HP 88780 / Tandem 5170 9 track SCSI tape drives : $400 each

Covers: California
D

daverand

Experienced Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2022
Messages
129
Delivery Options
Local Pickup Only
I have a couple of nice Tandem 5170 / HP 88780 tape drives. I pulled my data off many years ago using these (and I still have one 9 track drive I use from time to time). These have been sitting in my rack for many years, and could use a good home.

Shipping them can be arranged, but you will need to find someone that can pallet them - I've been unable to find a local company that can do the job for a reasonable price (last quote I got was $3200 (!) for a 150 lbs shipment).
 
A few questions: What interface do these drives have? Where are they located? Any pictures?

Thanks,
--Jay
 
They are in San Jose. I have a crappy picture of them in the rack (they are under a tarp as well - sorry !). You are welcome to come and have a look - I'll need some help getting them out of the rack, though. They are HVD SCSI.
 

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In the process of testing, Jay picked up my other tape drive. He was able to get both working, and also fixed a diagnostic error on the second drive by replacing a board with a spare that he had - so now I have a tested, working tape drive available! Thank you, Jay! Apparently, the diagnostic message didn't affect the drive, but it's nice that it's fully tested now. If you need to read some old tapes, now's the time to get this...
 
Thanks to another forum member, I would like to reduce the price of this remaining tape drive to $300 - he sent me cash because he was unable to complete a pickup. It is a tested, working drive. Estimate for shipping in the US was about $500, but final price will depend on destination and carrier.

Free pickup in San Jose, of course.
 
Allow me to warn the unwary: "They are HVD SCSI." That's not used nowadays, and was never really popular, so unless you have a host with HVD facilities, you'll probably end up scrounging for a HVD-LVD converter. Nice drives, BTW.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Allow me to warn the unwary: "They are HVD SCSI." That's not used nowadays, and was never really popular, so unless you have a host with HVD facilities, you'll probably end up scrounging for a HVD-LVD converter. Nice drives, BTW.
Click to expand...
I had to go read up on that topic as I didn't recognize those acronyms in conjunction with SCSI. As I read it "HVD" is simply the traditional differential SCSI interface. BITD I remember a lot of those interfaces on equipment from at least HP and DEC where SCSI drives were often located in external chassis. Not sure that many "nowadays" people intend to use 9-track equipment with "nowadays" computers ... but I completely agree caveat emptor when approaching SCSI -- not all SCSI interfaces are the same.
 
And that same forum member has found a better shipping method, and purchased the last tape drive. Thank you again, Jay for your help!
 
HVD - High voltage differential. Try to find a controller with that interface--they're not common and weren't very popular.
The differential SCSI that you find nowadays is LVD - Low voltage differential. Do HVD wrong and you can smoke some parts. Many LVD SCSI controllers can also auto-switch to single-ended (SE) operation.
 
Kind of late to the party but HVD controllers aren't that rare. Last time I looked I saw a few on ebay for like $10. I also gave a couple away a few weeks ago. I kept one for myself for backup incase my lvd to hvd adapter fails.
 
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